The Home Grown Country Life

Tuesday, 4 March 2014

What’s the deal with blogging? It suddenly seems like
everyone has a blog (I realise how hypocritical and ironic it is that I’m
actually blogging right now, but just go with it). I don’t know how many times
in conversation people will casually add the words ‘in my blog’. What are they trying to say by letting you know? I
have something to say, I have strong opinions, don’t mess with me or you will
end up in my blog, I’m such a deep thinker?? A blog can be informative,
entertaining, boring or preachy. There was one I read that made me laugh so
hard I had tears running down my face and made my husband look at me like I was
a lunatic. Some read like a private journal entry that has been made public,
but perhaps should have been left private.

In Hyde park in Sydney, there is a place where people bring
their ‘soap boxes’ or milk crates and stand up on them and preach (for lack of
a better word) their chosen topic in loud voices to passers-by. Popular themes
amongst the milk-crate-preachers include; aliens and UFO’s (they are coming to
get you), antigovernment types (these people probably also believe in UFO’s),
preppers (people preparing for the end of the world and once again, usually
related to aliens and the government…and atomic bombs), religion and politics.
Most people walk past. Some stop and listen, enjoying the spectacle. Others
will debate with the speaker about why they are wrong. This seems like an
acceptable thing to happen and if anything the speakers appear delighted that
they have managed to lure someone into a conversation about a topic they are
clearly passionate and obsessive about. It then seems to end up as a battle of wits…whose
oratory persuasion and knowledge can out do the other persons (also known as a
debate), onlooker’s head nodding or shaking to indicate level of agreement.

I find the soap box situation awkward. When I see them one
word usually comes to mind. Weirdo. They are generally extreme and more or less
wanting to tell you that you have it wrong. I get the feeling that most of them would
struggle socially. I don’t think ‘coolness’ has ever crossed their mind
(totally overrated anyway). It’s awkward because they are really putting
themselves out there, wearing their heart on their sleeve for all to see and to
tear off.

The other word that comes to mind is brave. It takes a lot
of guts and conviction and planning. They haven’t just been strolling through
the city and thought ‘I have a thought…I might say it aloud for all to hear’,
no, they had all their props ready the night before. Milk crate, check. UFO
warning signs, check. Information booklets, check. Brown trousers, check.
Original aviator reading glasses, check. Sweaty armpits, check. Then they got
up early the next morning, gathered their gear, and made their way to the park,
hopefully beating all the other like-minded individuals to the best spot.

Blogging is just a passive form of this. Your blog is really
a soap box. You may be in your pyjamas, but really its brown trousers, aviators
and sweaty armpits. Your audience is potentially a million, but at the same
time, a million people may decide your first sentence was too boring to
continue reading.

Aaah, blogging. Is it just another way to get rejected by a
larger audience? I have noticed that people can be vicious in their comments.
Trolls. It’s easy to be mean from the safety and anonymity of your lounge room.

Similar to when you are driving and a car speeds up behind
you, swerving from side to side about an inch from your rear bumper trying to
get past (even though you are going ten over the speed limit). Eventually they
make it in to the lane next to you (probably stuck behind the same traffic you
are) and the light turns red. You both pull up next to each other. You look.
The soccer mum in the car next to you, with her freshly manicured claws
gripping the steering wheel, pretends to not notice that the driver she has
been trying to intimidate for the last 5 minutes with close range swerving
motions is right next to her. She won’t look. Not so brave anymore. Trolls
really get my blood boiling. So weak. So pathetic, yet their comments can be so
damaging and hurtful.

So what am I trying to say? I don’t know where I was going
with all this. I actually started writing thinking my angle was only blog if
you have something interesting to blog about, or lead a life worth blogging, but
I think the moral of the story is, be nice to bloggers. They are modern day
soap box preachers with something on their heart or in their head that they
want to put out there. At the end of the day they might be a bit weird, but if
you don’t like it you don’t have to read it. It’s something that they clearly
feel passionate about and there will be like minded individuals out there who
will love what they have to say. Birds of a feather will flock together after
all.

Wednesday, 29 January 2014

Congratulations to those who put their hands up for the seed
giveaway. You should have all received them by now. Here is a little ‘how to’,
to get you started.

Sowing seeds is easy and much more economical than buying
seedlings. I think gardening gives us so much more than just food, but it does
not make any sense to me to spend $4.00 on a punnet of carrot seedlings which
after watering and nurturing for months, will result in 8 carrots, when you can
go to your local supermarket and buy a whole bag of organic ones for $4.50. As
much as I enjoy gardening for gardening sake, it has to be logical.

I remember seeing potted garlic for sale at my local
hardware store for $9.00, and it only had two plants in it. I guess for people
who don’t know how garlic grows and imagining that these will grow into ‘garlic
bushes’ that end up being festooned in garlic bulbs, this may seem like a good
deal. In reality it was probably the most expensive garlic in the world at
$4.50 a bulb as each plant only grows one bulb.

There are a few seeds that require a bit more time and
patience to grow, but for the most part my journey so far has taught me that
when you plant a seed in the right season and water it, (and don’t let it dry
out), it will grow!!! Sounds simple and self-explanatory, but it amazes me, and
you don’t need to be an expert you just need to try.

So what do you need to start.

·soil

·compost or manure

·seed raising tray

·seeds

·sea weed solution (Seasol)

Seed raising mix. You buy the stuff because you think you
are doing the right thing, right? I mean, if only it would do what it was
supposed to do.

I don’t use commercial potting mixes/seed raising mixes
because I never had great success with them. My seeds would sprout and then
would really struggle and look weedy. If you have tried and failed with growing
seeds, this may be the reason. The thing I noticed with commercial seed raising
mixes is they would often seem to repel water and become really dry despite
watering and they seem to lack the nutritional requirements for growing a plant
beyond the two leaf stage.

Search around your garden for some decent soil. If its clay
it’s not decent, you may have to buy some. It should be easy to dig, be
relatively fine (not have too many rocks/sticks) and, you know…look like nice dark dirt. If
you really don’t have any soil, then just buy a bag. Put a spade full into a
bucket. I mix mine with mushroom compost, or the compost from my chicken pens
(which is well rotted straw and manure). If you don’t have either of these in
your yard you need to buy a bag of compost/composted manure from a nursery or
visit a friend who has some. I mix two parts soil to one part compost/manure.

Compost or composted manure contains organic matter which
will hold water and supply nutrients to your seedlings so they can grow.

1.So, mix the soil with the compost in the bucket.
Make sure to break up any lumps. Add a little water and mix through, enough to
make it damp, not mud.

2.Spread the mix into your seed tray and lightly
press into each cell.

3.Give it another water to soak it through and
settle the soil in.

4.Find a small stick, and use it to push a hole
about 1 cm deep in the middle of each cell. The required depth may vary depending
on what you are planting, but for pak choy, 1cm is fine.

5.Drop a seed in each hole and cover over with
dirt.

Place your seed trays in a sunny position. In summer I put mine in a place that will get full sun for a small part of the day but not the full day as there is always the risk that you come home from work on a hot day and find your seedlings fried. During winter it's ok to leave them in full sun. Make sure any excess water
can drain out, in other words, make sure the tray isn’t sitting in a pool of
water as this will rot the seeds/plants. At the same time, if you let them dry
out while the seed is germinating or sprouting, they will die, so they do need
to be watered every day at the beginning.

I give them a water with the sea weed solution once or twice
a week, and that’s all. I know there is more than one way to skin a cat, but I'm just sharing my method.

Come on, commit to starting a garden by sowing some seeds,
then you will be forced to find somewhere to plant them out.

I’m going to do a tutorial soon on how to make a simple
garden, so simple anyone can do it, and I will transplant my own seedlings into
it! I hope you will join me.

Thursday, 12 December 2013

As I mentioned in my recent articles, I just love Christmas.
Christmas is a great time of year for traditions.

I’ve decided after much thought and observation, that traditions
create a sense of security, comfort and togetherness. Traditions shape
childhood memories, and they are usually fond ones (unless your family
traditions included walking barefooted through a bindi patch on Christmas
Eve…unlucky).Traditions may just be
something you have just always done. It doesn’t have to have any great meaning
behind it, it doesn’t have to be symbolic or spiritual, it just has to be
done…and then done again the next time…and then the time after that (that’s
what makes it a tradition).

The familiarity and predictability of rituals or traditions
not only create a sense of security, but are also a great source of fun, excitement
and anticipation.

We live in such a fast paced
techno-gadgety-digital-drivethru-world I think it’s good to take a time out
from it, and spend some quality time with the fam-bam making warm and fuzzy
memories.

It doesn’t have to be fancy, but it usually involves quality
time, which means not staring at your phone the whole time. Sometimes as a
parent I actually have to force myself to not take a photo, and to just be in
the moment. I do like taking photos, but I don’t want my view of my children’s
lives to only be through the screen of a iPhone held at arms length.

Growing up there was an entire neighbourhood that would
decorate their houses with painted timber cut outs (of Santa, elves, Nativities
etc) and lights. Unbelievably fairy light weren’t invented when I was a kid
(does that mean I’m old?). The lights people used were those big coloured light
bulbs on a string or spotlights shining on the cut outs. Our family (with many
others) made it a tradition every year to walk the whole neighbourhood and oooh
and aaah at all the displays. It was pure magic!

We also used to visit a particularly nice Nativity scene at
a shopping centre. I remember every year trying to see baby Jesus’ face in the
manger…I could never quite see it. I would have loved to climb over the railing
and pick him up and just get a good look at Him.

On Christmas Eve we started having a family dinner with all
our extended family. There were all the usual festive foods, crackers, carols
and laughter. Christmas Eve dinner has become a real highlight for me.

Christmas morning, after the presents, we went to church.
All the kids proudly taking along their favourite toy and blatantly showing it off to all the other kids doing the same thing.

Christmas lunch, we again had a family meal with the
extended family. On both sides of my family it was tradition that the family patriarch
would be ‘Santa’ and sit by the Christmas tree and call the cousins names out
to come and get their presents!!

With my kids, we still do dinner on Christmas Eve, we look
at light displays, but I’ve started a new tradition of going to a Christmas
tree farm and cutting down a real tree. We also have a craft day with the
cousins and make something Christmassy. This year we are making candles and
decorating pine cones.

This was last years tree selection process. What this picture doesn't convey is how hot it was...42 degrees!! Far different from the snow dusted scenes in story books. 'Watch out for snakes' I kept reminding them, which was a bit silly as it would have been way too hot for snakes.

My Dutch friend told me about Sinterklass (Dutch Santa).
Apparently his birthday is the 6th of December, he was a real
person after all, and if you leave your shoe by the fireplace before his birthday,
he comes and leaves chocolate and biscuits in your shoe!! We did it this year
and the kids thought it was great so that’s a new tradition that we are going
to adopt.

We have loads of little traditions that I won’t bore you
with, but the important thing is we do them, and we have fun as a family.
Hopefully one day my kids will pass these traditions down to their kids.

This years selection process. Chose a much milder day, and waited until late afternoon...very pleasant.

For kids the Christmas magic is in the belief and in the
anticipation, for parents the magic is in watching their children’s excited
faces and I imagine for grandparents the magic is watching their children watch
their children. Now that would be pretty special.

So what are your family traditions? Inheritance isn’t always
money or property…it may be a tradition you have started!We all probably have some similar traditions like carols, crackers, paper hats and ham, but why don't you start a new one that is unique and meaningful to your family. "Now come on family its time to tie an onion on your belt and all hold hands while grandpa touches the electric fence."

I'd love to hear about any special or unique traditions your family keeps.

Wednesday, 4 December 2013

Deck the halls this Christmas with my 'lazy persons festive bunting'. I love the idea of lovingly cutting out fabric and stitching it all together...but it aint going to happen. It's quick, easy and cheap. I made some last year to decorate the house for a Christmas party thinking it wouldn't last and I could just toss it after Christmas, but I packed it away and what do you know...it looks as good this year as it did the last! It was so effective that throughout the year I've made easter bunting and birthday bunting as well.
All you need is a stapler, scissors, ribbon and a festive themed pad of scrapbooking paper (which you can pick up from dollar shops or Big W etc).

Below. Fold opposite corners of the paper together to make a big triangle.

Then fold the corners together again to make a smaller triangle. Press the fold line together well.

Cut across to make two triangles as shown. These will have the paper print on both sides.

Use all different colours and patterns if you feel adventurous. Lay them out flat ready to staple. You will end up with a spare bit of paper that you can make other Christmas crafts with.

Staple the side together to stop them opening.

Now staple them onto ribbon. Make sure you use even spacing, this will make them look nice.

I use three staples along the top.

Here is the finished product.

I have probably made 15 metres of it and wouldn't have even used half the pad of paper.

Tuesday, 5 November 2013

Christmas is around the corner. Truthfully, I get really
excited about the silly season…maybe even more so than the kids. I remember as
a kid standing on the back steps searching the starry Christmas Eve sky for
Santa and his sleigh. I actually convinced myself that I saw him!

I think most people remember that moment when they found out
Santa wasn’t real. I wasn’t very old, maybe four or five. I had left Santa a
gift under the tree. A rubber from the church bookshop that said ‘God loves you”.
He needed to know! Anyway, later on in the year I happened to find the same
rubber in my mum’s wardrobe and I just put two and two together.

My kids have grown up believing in the guy in the red suit.
If they asked me directly if Santa was real I wouldn’t lie to them, but they
just never have. Every year we thought it would be the last. We expected them to come home from school with
this knowledge passed on by friends, but this has never happened!!

As a nurse I try to distract patients with chatter while
changing dressings or jabbing them with needles etc. I’d had a discussion with
one patient, an elderly man, about when I should tell my son about Santa. I
never thought we would be the ones to break it to him…I just figured childhood
would take care of it for me. But he was getting older and more than anything I
wanted to prevent some major embarrassment at school. The patient said “oh no,
don’t tell him. Let him believe while he is a child. Once you take that magic
away from him you can’t get it back. Let him be a child for a bit longer.” It’s
true. We seem to be in such a hurry these days to make our kids grow up. Suddenly
the whole Santa issue seemed to signify childhood and innocence and it made me
sad because it meant my baby was no longer a baby…he was growing up (sniff).

Not so long after that I said to my husband that I think it
may be time to give our oldest the birds and the bees talk (he is currently
10). My husband who has the remarkable talent of seeing all things clearly said
“he can’t know about sex and still believe in Santa”. So true. So he told him
about Santa. Talking to my son about it later I asked if he was disappointed.
He said “kinda. I figured the Easter bunny wasn’t real, or the tooth fairy
(because that’s ridiculous), but Christmas is so magical, I’m a bit sad”.

I know some people are firmly against the big guy in the red
suit. They don’t want their kids to have trust issues because they lied to them
about Santa. Each to their own. I’m yet to meet an adult who links their trust
issues to their parents actively promoting St Nic. A more likely source of trust issues would be being abandoned by one of your parents, or finding out your Dad had another family somewhere. If anything people seem to
enjoy reminiscing about the excitement and anticipation they had as a Santa
believing child. Adults would pay good money to be able to experience the same
kind of excitement and glee that kids get out of Christmas. I feel like this is
an opportunity that exists in childhood and I don’t want to rob my kids of
that.

If you don’t want your kids to believe in Santa, that’s fine,
but do me a favour, can you also tell them to not ruin it for everyone else?
Last Christmas we met this little girl at a party. The first thing she said to
my kids was “Santa isn’t real”…ahem. Some hours later I saw her run back over
to her parents and say “no, we had it wrong, Santa is actually real, he really is”, all the kids standing behind her
like excited chipmunks. The other kids at the party had infected her with
Christmas magic. The dads face was hilarious as he looked at his daughter and
the 10 other kids behind her. I gave him my best ‘go ahead. I DARE you’ look,
but he didn’t.

With all this Santa talk I don’t want to take away from the
real reason for the season, the birth of Jesus. My kids are well aware of this
fact and love celebrating Jesus’ birthday. We even have a Nativity based lights
display out the front of our house so we can share this with our neighbours and
friends. I remember singing silent night and away in a manger as a girl
thinking they were the most beautiful songs in the world. The words really
painted a picture for me of the miracle that took place in that stable all
those years ago.

Christ is always going to be the centre of Christmas. Over
the years (or millennia) cultural and religious traditions have formed around Christmas.
I know there are lots of people who will tell me I’m wrong, but I feel that in
Australia we have so few cultural traditions that I have decided that I’m going
to milk this one for all its worth…that includes Santa.

I think I’ll leave it there. I think my next post will be
about building traditions in your family and given the time of the year it will
probably be about some fun Christmas traditions and activities.

Tuesday, 22 October 2013

First of all, I want you to know I love social media. I
think it is great. I get to keep in contact with friends and family in other
towns, states and other countries. I get to see my nieces and nephews several
times a week, even though they live two hours away. I’ve never had a problem with
negative comments or internet trolls (despite having a friend that’s a troll….you
know who you are Smeng Shmolson), after all you can pick and choose who gets to view your
stuff. I love that on Instagram you can search your favourite hash tag and find
people all around the world who share similar interests. They can inform you,
inspire, educate or make you laugh. I usually search gardening related topics.
If you search ‘home grown’ you find a lot of pot growers. I hash tagged ‘tampon’
once because I posted a photo of my 5 year old who had made a boat that he had
decorated with tampons (he has no idea), then I searched the hash tag to see
what else came up…well thousands and thousands of people all over the world
with nose bleeds popped up, and they all of course had jammed a tampon up their
nose. They all had the same great idea. People are funny.

There is of course the more overtly negative topics you can
search, which I have no interest in dwelling on, but many would, and access is
as simple and easy. In a few years my children will be teenagers, and the fact
that so much harmful content is so easily available frightens me, but that’s a
whole other topic and not what I want to talk about today.

Amongst family, friends and acquaintances the negative side
of social media is more subtle. Sunshine, rainbows, concerts, parties,
waterfalls, kids looking angelic (not at all like the little monsters they
are), tender family moments, exotic holiday snaps and healthy food pics…all
these pictures scream “see, isn’t my life perfect!!” Photos are cropped, styled
and filtered to look their best. It’s only natural that we want to share fun
and interesting things, I mean, who wants to see the boring bits of your life?
Not me. That’s what Twitter is for…because everyone wants to know you are in a
line at the supermarket. Not. That’s why I’m not on Twitter.

I’m as guilty as anyone of doing this. When I look back over
all the pictures I’ve posted…I’m impressed. My kids look like they are having a
great time, my garden looks to be flourishing, I give the impression I’m eating
all things healthy straight from the garden. These things are true sometimes,
but not all the time, but all you ever see on social media is the ‘sometimes’
moments and the viewers are left with the impression that it is ‘all the time’.
For adults, I think this is where the main danger of social media lies. We
watch all our friends having the most wonderful time during their exciting day,
and their kids are having the most magical, educational experiences. You see a
snap of your friends kids participating at a ‘how things move’ workshop at the
Powerhouse Museum on your newsfeed. You glance over your shoulder at your kids
plonked in front of the TV watching Postman Pat, in their pyjamas, eating an
evil ‘grain’ based breakfast, at 10 AM…and you feel bad.

"So healthy organic dried home grown bananas
fertilised by the grass fed cow I keep as a pet. The kids eat
them like lollies. Personally I like to follow with a
chaser of a raw, gluten free, vegan, organic green
smoothie made in my thermo mix. "

We just can’t help comparing and potentially having thoughts
of ‘I wish my life was that exciting, my kids are missing out, why wasn’t I
invited to that party?’ etc

There is a group on social media that I have dubbed ‘the hubby
lovers’. Women who post pics of their husband with gushy comments. ‘Love this
man, best husband ever, love my hubby, my hubby and me, me and my man’ etc.
That’s nice and lovely, but the max quota for this kind of pic is twice a
month…not every day. It’s like you’re trying to convince everyone that you have
this amazing relationship, or maybe you are trying to convince yourself?? Who
knows, but if I was a troll, I’d comment “get a room”. My husband doesn’t
engage in social media, so I don’t bother posting my sentiment for the world to
see…I like to tell him to his face.

There is also a lot of product placement that goes on, which
for the most part is probably intentional. It was this fact that motivated me
to write this article. Someone I’m following had posted a picture of the kids
playing in the backyard, but had unnecessarily angled the photo so you could
see the ocean in the background. I get it, you have a house on the beach. Now
we all know and think you are appropriately awesome. A picture of your cat may
seem benign, but have carefully placed your new Louis Vuitton handbag right
next to it…we can’t miss it, and even though you caption may read ‘I love my
Snowball’, it actually says, ‘check out my new $5000 handbag, yeah that’s
right, I’m rich. Didn’t you know? Well now you do.’ I personally think spending
that much money on a handbag makes you stupid, and probably in debt, don’t get
me started.

﻿﻿

"I remember that one time
this room was clean
before the kids trashed it and I had to hang the washing out
in it because I only remembered late last night I'd left wet
washing in the machine and the kids needed dry uniforms for
the next morning
...aah, the serenity"

I hope I don’t sound cynical. I really just want to remind
you that when you see and read things on social media it is usually just a
snapshot of the best bits of people’s day, week or year. Enjoy, appreciate and
admire their experiences, but don’t ever let them get you down, because their
life has as many boring bits as yours. When people product place in their
photos, see it for what it is, and wonder why they feel they need to do this.

I was going to create a insta-sham day for your enjoyment
(complete with product placement), but I have run out of time and energy. So my
two brief examples will have to suffice.

"Yummy, dehydrated bananas. Better feed them
to the kids to offset the Happy Meal they ate
in the car."

Tuesday, 23 July 2013

There is nothing better than fresh raspberries. They are
this amazing combination of taste and texture. They are these velvety little
vitamin bombs that explode taste when you squish them to the roof of your
mouth. I have always felt that buying raspberries at the supermarket is an
extravagance. They have to be the most expensive item per gram in the fresh
food section. I remember seeing punnets of raspberries (which is really
probably 2/3 of a cup) selling for $14!!!! When I say selling, I mean just
sitting on the shelf, because who could honestly justify paying that much for a
handful of berries. The only kind of person I can think of that might justify that
cost, is a would-be-boyfriend trying to impress a girl with a home cooked three
course meal, desert requiring fresh raspberry garnish. Oh the dilemma. Come up
with a new desert to impress, or fork out for fresh berries???

I know they aren’t normally quite that expensive, but it got
me thinking about how hard these berries must be to grow to be so pricey. After
doing a little research I discovered it’s not that they are hard to grow, it’s
that they don’t ripen after they are picked, so they have to be picked ripe and
therefore don’t have a long shelf life. They also can only be handled once, as
they bruise easily, so they are picked and placed straight in the punnet,
packed into crates and transported to market.

Well I’ve decided I want loads of these tasty treats so I’m
giving growing my own a try. Below I’ve covered the steps for planting
raspberry canes. I’ve only planted mine recently so I can’t say I’m sipping on
home grown raspberry daiquiris just yet, but maybe next year. I’ll keep you
posted.

I’ve embraced a ‘no dig technique’ with my gardening which
is basically as it sounds. Instead of digging into the ground you place
soil/mulch onto the ground building a mound in which to plant things. What you
will need is newspaper, soil/mulch, raspberry canes and a trellis. The trellis is
used to support the canes. I concreted two posts into the ground and strung
some wire up between them, but an existing fence or star stakes and wire would
work as well. Raspberries like a rich, well drained soil in a sunny position
that is also protected from strong winds.

1.Layout newspaper where you want your garden to
go. This will kill off the grass underneath and stop weeds popping up in-between. Picture below is showing my two original canes so we laid the newspaper around them.

2.Mound up your soil and mulch. I’m using mushroom
compost mixed with soil as that’s what I have at hand.

3.Plant all your canes allowing half a meter or so
between each one, ensuring that their roots are totally covered (a little
helper comes in handy).

4.Raspberries don’t like to dry out so make sure
you water them in well.

5.Apply a thick layer of sugar cane mulch over the
soil as this will help them to not dry out (not pictured).

The canes will eventually send out suckers and other canes
will pop up next to the original. Canes produce fruit once or twice a year
depending on variety, then they die back. By the time that happens new canes
have appeared and they will produce the fruit for the next season. The idea is
that your original cane multiplies into a thicket. I bought 8 different
varieties from www.diggers.com.au which
will fruit throughout the year which will hopefully mean I end up with
something like a regular supply.

Well, for those feeling adventurous why don’t you give it a
go?

This is me digging a post hole for the trellis...if you've never dug a post hole, well...you don't know what you are missing out on.